Tag: music history
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songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: boogie down productions “jimmy”
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“here is a message to the super hoes” whew, name a more iconic and sex-positive opening line of a hip-hop song released in 1998 – during the genre’s golden era? well, maybe i am being hyperbolic, but almost every lyric in “jimmy” by the pioneering new york hip-hop group boogie…
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my first queer club
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queer clubs were never places just to dance but sanctuaries for cultural expression and creativity. queer clubs have been spaces for escape, an environment where we could embrace our identities without fear, and before the advent of social media, queer clubs provided a physical gathering point to meet, connect, and…
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songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: sinéad o’connor’s “nothing compares to you”
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is she a skinhead or is she not? why is she bald? why is she all about? these were the questions i remember people asking upon the release of the video for sinéad o’connor’s “nothing compares 2 u.” without any historical context, these questions seem odd, but with sleekly produced…
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songs that songtracked the AIDS Crisis: aqua’s “barbie girl”
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The first time I heard the euro-pop sensation Aqua’s Barbie Girl was in the summer of 1997, at a party We The People organized in Clementon Park, New Jersey. The DJ was mixing bona fide house hits with contemporary jams. I remember this so vividly because I watched someone do…
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Songs That Soundtracked The AIDS Crisis: LaTour’s “People Are Still Having Sex”
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By 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had spent over $7,000,000 on mass media public service announcements since launching their HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign in 1987. However, despite these efforts, the AIDS crisis continued to escalate, with over 120,000 AIDS-related deaths reported since 1981. In this…
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When A Menudo Concert Paused Was in El Salvador
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When I pressed play on Menudo: Forever Young on HBO Max , the new docu-series on the iconic Puerto Rican boy band, I didn’t expect to learn something about El Salvador’s history. I was a little too young for Menudo, but for my big sister and others like her who…
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Still Special: 25 Years of “The Velvet Rope”
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One could talk for hours about the cultural significance of an album like The Velvet Rope: the way its composition and construction provide a direct throughline to the songs and albums soundtracking our current times or how Its accompanying visuals amplify the project’s various moods and tones. There’s a weight to…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Miquel Brown’s “So Many Men, So Little Time”
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“So many men, so little timeHow can I choose,So many men, so little timeHow can I choose” On March 14, 1983, Larry Kramer published his now historic essay entitled “1,112 and Counting” in a bi-weekly gay newspaper, The New York Native. The blistering essay, which also served as an urgent call to…
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OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
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olivia, i honestly love you. i remember the stereo with the big knob and bright neon dial. every morning i stared at it as my grandmother dressed me for kindergarten. i stared at the dial set on WCAU 98FM and wished the radio played at least one of my favorite…
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Kevin Aviance’s “Cunty” Remains a Legendary & Impactful Song
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standing at over six feet tall, kevin aviance annihilated social expectations of gender expression all while conquering ballroom and dance music. before making his mark in new york city’s nightlife in the early 90s, he was a commanding presence in ballroom as a member of the house of aviance. in…
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Songs That Soundtracked The AIDS Crisis: City High’s “What Would You Do?”
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What would you do, if you knew that many of the songs that captivated older millennials and Gen Yers were rife with vitriolic judgment? The very bops that defined how we understood our relationship to the world, would now be “Cancel Culture” fodder, and rightfully so. In 2001, such a…
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UNCANNY ALLIANCE
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in the early 1990s, there was no shortage of dance groups from new york garnering national notoriety at both the club and radio level. but only a few were able to brilliantly fuse the complicated feelings of joy and isolation, self discovery, camp and humor into catchy pop hooks the…